West End celebrates Sand City's coolness

Luke Ahearn had lived on the Monterey Peninsula for more than a decade before he moved his studio to Sand City, a sort of secret hiding place for artists on the Monterey Peninsula.

"I love it here," he says. "I probably met more people in my very first month in Sand City than I had met in the previous 10 years in Monterey: other artists, homeless people, and folks just passing by who want to stop and talk. It's a very cool place to be an artist."

Sand City's cool was on full display Saturday and Sunday during the 12th annual West End Celebration, a free festival of arts, entertainment, food, drink, and an eclectic gauntlet of vendors hawking their wares. There also was music, provided by popular bands like Guitars Not Guns, Stranger Band, Chris Cain and Moonalice.

Ahearn, 49, was born and reared in New Orleans, where he spent much of his childhood exploring the French Quarter, wandering through old cemeteries, soaking up the unique atmosphere.

"I found out a while back that I'm actually directly related to (French pirate) Jean Lafitte," he says. "And after I saw the Pirates of the Caribbean ride (at Disneyland), my dream as a child was to live inside that ride. Now, because of what I do every day, I kind of get to do that."

Ahearn and his 21-year-old daughter, Ellen — also an artist — were among more than 100 sculptors, painters, metalworkers, glassblowers, jewelry makers, and other artsy-craftsy types who populated the streets for the celebration, but his creations ranked among the most eye-catching.

Ahearn makes pirate stuff — skulls and skeletons, treasure chests, old guns and swords, animatronic characters and props in his studio, Masterwerks, near the corner of Ortiz Avenue and Holly Street.

Some of his artwork winds up on local stages; some of it adorns Halloween parties; some of it has been used to create unusual atmospheres at resort swimming pools.

"I was contacted by a company that was building an underground cave pool, and it was huge — something like 250,000 square feet — and they wanted to decorate it like an old pirate treasure cave," he says. "I spent months on that project, building treasure chests, and cannonballs, and skeletons, one of which was a motion-activated animatronic who raised his gun and threatened anybody who got near him. He told you to get away from his treasure."

West End celebrants marveled at his haunting skulls and ancient-looking pirate guns, among other items on display. His customers are typically a bit surprised to discover they're not real.

"There was one guy who used to make deliveries to my dad's studio. He'd always look at the guns, and one day he finally picked one up," says Ellen, a York School alum now studying at Monterey Peninsula College. "He was really surprised that it wasn't heavy because it looked so real. He didn't realize it was mostly plastic and cardboard."

Unlike his Dean's list daughter, Ahearn was a problem student in New Orleans, falling asleep in class because he often stayed up most of the night reading.

He took that work ethic with him to college, where one day he walked into a classroom and sat down next to the best-looking female in the room.

"I had really long hair, and a beard, and I was barefoot, and I leaned over and said, 'So, what have I missed?'" he recounts. "And she said, 'Three weeks of class.' Turns out, I was a little late."

Julie Ahearn, now a Monterey video producer, didn't like him all that much at first, he says, but he wore her down and she married him.

Ahearn taught himself how to build computer games, then turned the skill into a business that employed most of his chums. They went work at other gaming companies, but Ahearn got bored and moved on.

"I shut down the company and wrote a couple of books to help people understand how to make computer games," said Ahearn, who has written nine books, several of which are used at high schools and universities. "I actually got some hate mail from people in the industry who felt like I was giving away trade secrets, but I just didn't want other people going through the frustrations I had experienced as I was learning. I don't like holding back knowledge."

His books were so successful that the royalties are still paying a lot of the household bills.